Toronto still important for world’s wealthy

by Jamie Henry06 Mar 2015

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Toronto still important for world’s wealthy

Knight Frank’s annual wealth report shows the 40 cities that are considered the most important to some of the richest people in the world. The league table looks at the quality of life for those with net assets above U$30 million. London, New York and Hong Kong are the top three with Asia and Europe dominating the top 10 but at number 12 Toronto is not only the only Canadian city to feature but it outranks most of North America including San Francisco, Los Angeles and Boston. Read the full list.

Why are we only looking at housing supply? In other jurisdictions demand by non-residents is dampened down by transfer fees and additional taxes. For example, Hong Kong charges an additional 15 per cent transfer tax if a buyer of real estate is not a permanent resident in Hong Kong. There are similar restrictions in Singapore, the United Kingdom and Australia. Canada will soon be one of the few jurisdictions in the world without restrictions in foreign demand for real estate.

For the benefit of Canadians who live and work in Canada and pay taxes in Canada there needs to be restrictions placed on foreign demand. If there are no restrictions then the affordability issue will only grow into a bigger and bigger headache until finally something breaks. Action should have been taken years ago. But now is better than never.